Stratfor is a private intelligence agency that works for business interests and government. It tracks and analyzes a lot of issues – the economy, military conflict, politics, energy and security. Recently it has also been monitoring, analyzing and reporting on social movements. Their interests in movements show their concern that revolts have been growing and are having an impact around the world.

The main demo was scheduled for 2pm, starting at the Rote Flora squat, located on Schulterblatt street in the Schanze district, but there were a couple more calls for street protest before and after this one.

More than 7,000 participated in Saturday’s protest (others estimate a total of 10,000 people) against attempted eviction of the Rote Flora squat, a building occupied for over 24 years, threatened to be sold by owner Klausmartin Kretschmer. Additionally, the mobilization referred to the right to stay for refugees and the Esso houses at the Reeperbahn, but was also directed against gentrification, daily surveillance, and repression within the “danger zones” (authorities are calling parts of Hamburg danger zones, like the area where the Rote Flora squat is located). Meanwhile, in the early hours of Sunday, December 15th, the Esso houses were evacuated by police and municipal authorities on the pretext of danger of collapse.

On December 21st, the police attacked a large contingent of protesters shortly after the beginning of the noon demo in the Schanze district, to prevent people from continuing the protest. The Hamburg police announced that the demonstration “started too early” and was therefore stopped; later they claimed that first they were attacked, and then unleashed a crackdown. Truth is the demo was halted at circa 20 meters from the Rote Flora squat, when the cops used water cannons, baton charges and pepper spray against protesters. Despite the repression blows, many demonstrators fought back, and it came to strong clashes. Police forces were pelted with stones, bottles, fireworks, smoke-bombs, and other objects. In addition, construction barriers and other materials were used for street barricades. The situation went out of control, and cops were massively attacked. Amid street battles, two cops reportedly drew their weapons at people (a rumor regarding a warning shot has not been confirmed), and repression forces kettled almost the whole of Schanze. Many protesters were heavily injured by cops, while anti-riot squads attempted to detain demonstrators en masse, but mostly to split blocs and chase people away.

The Hamburg police announced that 19 people were taken into custody, investigated for ‘committing a breach of the peace’. The legal aid team (Ermittlungsausschuss Hamburg) counted approximately 260 arrests/detentions, and more than 500 injured protesters. One of the arrestees, who did not have German documents, was kept in custody.

Hamburg’s free radio FSK transmitted live reports from the streets all day.

Later that evening, protesters tried to carry out further rallies and spontaneous actions in the inner city, and some skirmishes broke out. Spontaneous gathering and barricading took place in front of the Esso houses, too. Around the St. Pauli district, some of the actions included attacks on the Empire Riverside Hotel, stores, cars (smashed windows), the Hamburger Sparkasse (Haspa) and other bank branches. Surprise demonstrations and direct actions took place the whole night. At the same time, solidarity actions were called in other parts of Germany.

Solidarity to the Oranienplatz protest camp, the Rote Flora squat, the Esso houses initiative, and all combative refugees and migrants!

Report from December 20th

One day before the big demonstration on December 21st, investor Gert Baer and owner Klausmartin Kretschmer demanded the eviction of the Rote Flora squat. Even though it would take them months to get a judicial decision on such an eviction, their ultimatum was a direct provocation.

Late in the evening, the Davidwache cop station at the Reeperbahn was effectively attacked by more than 200 people (see videos here: i, ii).

Young, masked, dressed in black, and exercising Blac Bloc tactics, activists distributed gifts, taught art, and read books to children on Tuesday December 24th in the square of the São Paulo Cathedral. The act, dubbed Operation “Velho Batuta,” was closely monitored by police.

There are at least two ways to make music. The negative one and the positive one. We can screech as long as we like on the strings of a violin and still not succeed in making what comes out music. But a whole portfolio of scores of the great composers still does not make a musician. It follows that one should not pay attention to how things are said as much as to what is being said.

There is as much violining about drugs today as there is about everything else. Each plays their own way, with their own purposes. There are those who talk with an air of personal authority, although when it comes down to it, all they know is hearsay. This science reaches them through others’ experience, it is an outside affair. They have observed matters that are not their own, gathering ‘eye-witness accounts’ that are mere signals, not reality. It matters little then in my opinion whether one adopts a permissive attitude or makes apocalyptic forecasts.

Then there are the usual scoundrels who call for politically opportunistic projects great or small, but here again the difference is irrelevant.

Scientists have found a nearly 7,500-square-mile ring of land and water contaminated by mercury surrounding the tar sands in Alberta, where energy companies are producing and shipping oil throughout Canada and the U.S.

The NATO 3 are scheduled to go to trial on January 6, 2014. We need to raise an additional $12k for their legal costs and commissary needs. Please donate today!

If you are planning to attend trial hearings in solidarity with the NATO 3, please be aware that Judge Thaddeus L. Wilson has issued a decorum order which will be strictly enforced. The full decorum order can be found here, but the two sections which are most relevant are as follows:

All persons in the courtroom must remain silent during all proceedings. There will be no talking, noise making, standing, kneeling, waving, hand raising or other conduct of solidarity, camaraderie, protest, approval or disapproval in the courtroom or in the hallway outside the courtroom.

There are no warnings. This Order is not exhaustive of all conduct not allowed in the courtroom. Anyone who is unclear as to whether their…

Very soon, Judge Keenan will decide whether to order my release or to continue my incarceration. He will make this decision based in large part on my claim that what began as coercive confinement has clearly become punitive – meaning that there never was any chance that incarceration would intimidate me into cooperating with this Grand Jury, and that after serving 7 months in this place, my resolve has only grown stronger.

This is not to say that I haven’t suffered – I’ve lost more during my incarceration that I ever thought possible. I grieve for every goodbye, and I doubt that some of these scars will ever heal. It is during truly difficult times that reveal what lives in the core of people, and that knowledge can sometimes be incredibly painful. But so too can that knowledge make us stronger; I take comfort from those of my fellows who have also refused to be made into subjects of this place. My own resistance is far from unique. It is found in those who have always said NO to those in power. My refusal to cooperate is my contribution to this tradition of defiance to arbitrary and repressive power. I will not cooperate. I will not be institutionalized. No compromise in this. I will not sacrifice my dignity in order to leave this place, and that’s not nothing.

I offer my belated but heartfelt condolences to the family and partner of Herman Wallace. Please take a moment to write to Albert Woodfox, the last member of the Angola 3 still in prison. Please also take a moment to participate in the Move Marie campaign, at SupportMarieMason.org.

Counter-terrorism officers were on Friday examining the remains of a makeshift bomb that detonated in the early hours of the morning outside the summer home of former socialist prime minister Costas Simitis in Aghioi Theodoroi, near Corinth, causing widespread damage but no injuries.

Noone was in the house at the time of the suspected arson attack which destroyed the house’s living room and kitchen, according to the fire service. The perpetrators had planted the bomb in front of the main balcony door which they had doused with petrol, according to sources. The authorities were alerted after the fire caused by the device set off the house’s alarm system.

Simitis, whose primary residence in the capital, was prime minister under PASOK between 1996 and 2004.

Arrests after Exarchia police station attack

A 26-year-old man accused of being part of a group of around 30 people that threw rocks and Molotov cocktails at a police precinct in Exarchia, central Athens, on Friday is due to appear before a magistrate on Tuesday to face charges that include attempted grievous bodily harm and illegal possession of explosives.

The suspect was arrested immediately after the raid, which caused damage but no injuries.

Two more men, aged 18 and 20, were arrested a little later but they are to face misdemeanor charges.

A posting on the Indymedia website on Sunday claimed the attack was carried out in solidarity with five men being held on suspicion of being members of the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire.

Bomb scare at appeals court proves false

Police on Tuesday evacuated the Athens appeals court on central Loukareos Street as a bomb disposal crew swept the building following an anonymous telephone call earlier in the day saying that a bomb had been placed in the premises.

The call was made at 11.20 a.m. to Vima FM radio station, warning that an explosive device was timed to go off at 11.55 a.m. at the Athens appeals court.

The building was evacuated as a precautionary measure while explosives experts continued to search the premises for explosives.

Three ATMs targeted in Athens

Three bank ATMs were targeted by unknown assailants in the early hours of Friday in Athens. The cash dispensers were located in the areas of Galatsi, Neos Kosmos, and Papagou. The three attacks took place within a span of eight minutes.

According to initial police reports, the ATMs were doused with inflammable liquid and set on fire.